The Quiet Answer

(January 30,
1968)

In
quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly
resolved. In conflict there can BE no answer and no resolution. For its
PURPOSE is to make NO resolution possible, and to ensure NO answer will
be plain. A problem set in conflict HAS no answer, for it is seen in
different ways. And what would be an answer from one point of view is
NOT an answer in another light. You ARE in conflict. Thus it must be
clear you cannot answer anything at all, for conflict HAS no limited
effects. Yet, if God gave an Answer, there MUST be a way in which your
problems are resolved, for what He wills already has been done.

Thus
it MUST be that time is not involved, and every problem can be answered
now. Yet it must also be that in your state of mind, solution is
impossible. Therefore, God must have given you a way of reaching to
ANOTHER state of mind, in which the answer is ALREADY THERE. Such is the
Holy Instant. It is here that ALL your problems should be brought and
LEFT. Here they BELONG, for here their ANSWER is. And where its answer
is, a problem MUST be simple and be easily resolved. It MUST be
pointless to attempt to solve a problem where the answer cannot be. Yet,
just as surely, it MUST be resolved, if it is brought to where the
answer IS.

Attempt
to solve NO problems but within the Holy Instant's surety. For there
the problem WILL be answered and resolved. Outside, there will be no
solution, for there IS no answer there that could be found. Nowhere
outside a single, simple question is ever ASKED. The world can ONLY ask
a double question, with MANY answers, none of which will do. It does not
ask a question to BE answered, but only to restate its point of view.
All questions asked within this world are but a way of looking, NOT a
question asked. A question asked in hate cannot be answered, because it
IS an answer in itself. A double question asks and answers, both
attesting the same thing, in different form.

The
world asks but ONE question. It is this: "Of these illusions, which of
them are true? Which ones establish peace and offer joy? And which can
bring escape from all the pain of which this world is made?" Whatever
form the question takes, its purpose is the same. It asks but to
ESTABLISH sin is real, and answers in the form of preference. "Which
sin do you prefer?" That is the one that you should choose. The OTHERS
are not true. What can the body get that you would want the most of all?
It is your servant and your friend. But tell it what you want, and it
will serve you lovingly and well. And this is NOT a question, for it
TELLS you WHAT you want, and WHERE to go to ask for it. It leaves no
room to question its beliefs, except that what it states takes
question's FORM.

A
pseudo-question has no answer. It DICTATES the answer, even as it asks.
Thus is all questioning within the world a form of propaganda for
itself. Just as the body's witnesses are but the senses from WITHIN
itself, so are the answers to the questions of the world contained
within the questions. Where answers represent the QUESTIONS they add
nothing new, and nothing has been learned. An HONEST question is a
learning tool which asks for something that you do NOT know. It does NOT
set conditions for response, but merely asks what the RESPONSE should
be. And no-one in a conflict state is free to ASK this question, for he
does not WANT an honest answer, where the conflict ENDS.

Only
within the Holy Instant can an honest question honestly be asked. And
from the meaning of the QUESTION does the meaningfulness of the answer
come. Here is it possible to separate your wishes FROM the answer, so it
can be GIVEN you, and also be RECEIVED. The answer is provided
everywhere, but it is only here it can be HEARD. An honest answer asks
NO sacrifice, because it answers questions truly asked. The questions of
the world but ask of whom is sacrifice demanded, asking NOT if sacrifice
is meaningful at all. And so, UNLESS the answer tells "of whom," it
will remain unrecognized, unheard, and thus the QUESTION is preserved
intact, because it gave the answer to ITSELF.

The
Holy Instant is the interval in which the mind is still enough to hear
an answer that is NOT entailed within the question asked. It offers
something new and DIFFERENT from the question. How COULD it be answered
if it but repeats itself. Therefore, attempt to solve NO problem in a
world from which the answer has been barred. But bring the problem to
the only place which holds the answer lovingly FOR you. Here are the
answers which will SOLVE your problems, because they stand APART from
them, and see what CAN be answered; what the QUESTION is. Within the
world, the answers merely raise ANOTHER question, though they leave the
first unanswered. In the holy instant, you can bring the question TO the
answer, and receive the answer that was MADE for you.